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Actress/Inventor Hedy Lamarr dies
No Such Agency writes "Wired News reports that Hedy Lamarr has died at the age of 86. Lamarr was not only a sex symbol and film star in the 30's-40's but also invented 'spread-spectrum' or frequency-hopping radio (with composer George Antheil). Originally intended to provide jamming-proof communications and remote torpedo control, the technology is one of the foundations of modern wireless communications, including wireless internet connections and GPS. Unfortunately their innovation was not appreciated until after their patent had expired. You can read more about Lamarr and spread-spectrum radio here."
...of the garage revolution. A composer and an actress coming up with a breakthrough in communications technology. Far out. I'm rethinking my whole approach:
/. tend to assume that the beautiful people are lusers.
Wanted: Hollywood starlets and composers to assist in next generation web development architecture. Must have interest in compression technology, just-in-time compilers and self modifying code. Large, firm breasts and/or
appreciation of Irving Berlin a plus. Competitive salaries, call today.
In all seriousness, I like this story in that is provides a (admittedly anecdotal) refutation to the frequently expressed opinion that only stereotypical geeks can contribute to technology. Some geeks have bulging biceps or a knack for (american) football. Some geeks are cute. Too many of us on
--Shoeboy
Personally, I think Corel should pay for a permanent memorial to her, in recognition for her services both in entertainment AND technology. (Given Corel's extremely unpleasent treatment of her in the past, such as false allegations in order to overturn a lawsuit filed against them, it is the least they can do.)
I also think that there should be some kind of fund, linking not only Hedy Lamarr but other well-known female geeks, nerds and innovators, to go to educating women (kids, teachers and parents) that it's OK to think, OK to earn decent money whilst clothed & vertical, and VERY OK to be interested in technology.
Is this person's death -that- important? YES! The fewer role-models that can speak out, the less chance there is of change. And society, frankly, sucks. The average person seems to keep their brains at waist-height, and technology is something people avoid like the plague. (More than a few -blame- it for the plague.) We need people who can stand up and say that intelligence is OK, that we were born with brains, and they aren't just for decoration in gorefest movies.
Sadly, those who -do- think about high-tech think "big machines, big budgets, big teams, egg-heads on Penguin Mints, and Military Backing". They don't think "piano", which is how Hedy came up with the idea of shifting frequencies. They don't think "storms & a compass", which is how Marconi developed the radio. They don't think "growing cells" or "living beings", which were the roots behind Alan Turing's and Von Neuman's developments in computing.
In the end, I doubt anyone will do a damn thing, in memory of this ingenious lady, to improve education, or to improve women's standing in society. But there ya go. What can you expect?
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Maybe a Slashdot Hedy Lamarr Award for the most outstanding contribution made by a woman in the last year?
Hey, it could work.
TOYWAR!!
Finding God in a Dog
Oh, sure, my submission about the passing of Ms. Lamarr gets rejected. Not that I'm bitter, mind you...
Anyway, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a story about her passing, inclding some nic e photos of her. They also had an overview of her spread spectrum invention.
Hedy was also honored by the EFF with a Pioneer Award in 1997 for her spread spectrum work.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
As the evening wore on, Lamarr began outlining her idea for a sophisticated antijamming device for use in radio-controlled torpedoes. If this seems out of character for a 26-year old film beauty, the fact is that not only did Lamarr possess a first-class mind but she also had listened to her husband's dinner-table business discussions with customers for his armaments. After all, Fritz Mandl's Hirtenberger Patronen-Fabrik had supplied much of the equipment Benito Mussolini used when his troops invaded Ethiopia in 1935.
Seastead this.
http://www.corel.com/graphics/contests/jpg/0379
Excellent graphics work. That pic is amazing. It's been on Corel's boxes for a while now.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon? :P)
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't.
A Canadian company specializing in wireless technology, Wi-Lan,acquired the original patent from Lamarr for "spread spectrum" technology back in 1998. Wi-Lan claimed that they were going to promote her role in developing the technology but sadly, I never saw much of that (I live in Canada and recall reading the article in June/98 in TCP, before Wi-Lan's apparent "discovery" by investors). The long overdue credit could still happen, but it's not the same once the co-inventor is dead (Lamarr's husband helped invent SST).
Read about it here
http://www.wilan.com/news/press/press23a.html
Outside of the obvious things that she did for science and the Allied forces during WWII- as well as the simple fact that I would not have a modem if not for her, the one thing that sticks in my mind is this:
After her accomplishments were turned over to the Government for the war effort, they did not welcome her into the halls of the nations think tanks.
Instead, they asked her to sell her sex appeal as a spokesmodel for the sale of U.S. war bonds.
Out of sheer patriotism, she did.
I'm just happy that she has started to recieve some of the respect that she's had coming for so long, and that the EFF was good enough to say 'thanks' while she was still alive.
I've read quite a bit about Nikola Tesla and his inventions, and I'm certain he invented this system right after the turn of the century.
He invented radio, patented it, and in 1893 gave a lecture about it and published it free for everyone in the world to use. He was then totally ripped off by Marconi around the turn of the century when he made the first transatlantic broadcast using the exact same apparatus that Tesla had described in the paper he published.
At this time, Tesla was trying to push the government to adopt his system of wireless war machines that could do battle without having humans be sitting ducks inside them. He demonstrated a model boat at the world's fair that was not only wireless, but used spread spectrum techonology to encrypt its signal. Nobody, of course picked up on this.
He went on to invent radar and offered to build radar systems for the government in the late 1920's, but they refused, and were forced to play catchup in 1938 and develop their own radar system.
If you'd like some more information about Tesla, go check out this short article about his major achievements: http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/ tesla/tesla.html.
Tesla was not a crackpot, like a lot of people who know nothing about the man seem to think. This view was created by Thomas Edison who spent a large portion of his life trying to smash Tesla's image, and he ended up succeeding very well.
- Chris
Actually.. I think saying 'Spread Spectrum' covers more than just Frequency Hopping....
There is Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum, Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum.. and I'm sure there are/will be others....
Freq. Hopping is when you shift carrier frequencies arond within the wider spectrum (hence, spread) that you are using.
Direct Sequence is a lot wierder (very closely tied in to CDMA... or rather, I think CDMA is an extension of DSSS). In direct sequency, you simply 'spread' the signal over the whole wide spectrum at once.... and the special way the signal is coded gives it redundancy, and makes it hide.
in FHSS, on a spectrum analyzer, a definite pattern of carriers on different frequencies shows up.. ina proper bell curve around the center frequency. (I think it's a bell.. something similar anyway).
in DSSS, on a spectrum analyzer, a 'plateau' is all you see.. with fuzz under it.
In case anyone missed it, the German film Ecstasy which launched Hedy Lamarr's career had a nude scene. It's quite tasteful by today's standards, and no, there's no petrification involved.
And if it doesn't disturb you to ogle the body of someone who is now dead, you should perhaps reconsider. And if you find it disturbing that someone posted this comment, then you're probably right.
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
The story of the "Secret Communications System" patent is truly one of the most incredible stories I've ever heard, (wouldn't it make a great film?) and a look at the patent is a real eye-opener for people who are familiar with modern digital technology.. Why? Because the design was for a digital system built with analog components..
And the person who said that Hedy and George had given their patent to the government in hopes of helping to stop Hitler was right..Hedy had seen facists and facism at close hand.. and so had my father, and they both knew what was at stake..
in spite of this, Hedy was still looked at suspiciously as an "enemy alien" by some.. :(
She was married off by her family when she was stillin her teens, and was kept virtual prisoner in Austria as a "trophy bride" of the Austrian arms magnate Fritz Mandel a few years before the war, and she literally had to drug a maid in order to flee..
While being forced to sit at the dinner table with her husband and his facist friends, who included high-ranking Nazi military officials, she built up a knowledge of military technology and carried that with her when she fled to London. (where Samuel Goldwyn, I think, gave her a ticket to the US) She met my father at a party at Janet Gaynor's house, and asked him if he could help her turn what was then a valid, but unformed idea into something that could work..(My father had a reputation in Hollywood as an experimental musician and as somebody who was familiar with the latest in technology..)
It took them about six months to do the whole process, and the patent is really interesting.
Hedy and George never made a penny from the patent, which was really unjust, I think, because the government had classified it as "Top Secret" and made the commercial utilization of the invention difficult. Just after the patent expired, in 1960, it began to see commercial use..(in the Cuban Missle Crisis) Its now the main secure communications technology in use in Milstar, the US govt's 25 billion dollar "survivable" satellite communications system. Spread Spectrum is, in addition to being an incredibly efficient way to send data, inherently secure.. (one needs to know the code, in order to read the message..or usually, even know a message exists..)
By the way, spread spectrum holds out another possibility with startling implications.. It could be used to create a new television and/or radio broadcasting service that would be able to, in any given geographic area, accomodate the broadcast of many, many more channels of information, at higher quality, than we have now, eliminating scarcity on the airwaves and the battles over bandwidth .. Just imagine, community radio, community television, creativity, true democracy of the airwaves, and perhaps, even, no need for a license to broadcast..and no more canned satellite shows..
That possibility scares some interests tremendously. And its something worth fighting for.
They have digital radio in Europe, why not here?
Guess why...
Anyway, my father died about six weeks after I was born, so I never knew him.. But I definitely did inherit his interest in communications technology...and music..and now that I know the real story, I'm very proud of him..
Now if only I could only get my only two relatives on this planet to stop saying I'm "blackmailing" them for simply being open about my father..(Its a generational thing, I guess. my mother and father weren't married, big deal..)
By the way, thanks for an excellent site, I read it almost every day..
Chris Beaumont
chris@ncafe.com
Amazing how World War II got a lot of women to do things they would never to today. With all the men fighting it was like a phsychological switch. By forcing them to take their husband's place they found that technology wasn't impossible and that seems to have carried over into the 60's. Today of course, there is no incentive for them to work and we live in a rapidly moving economy, with very high economic mobility, equal opportunity for everyone, and no women.